The gene services company said next generation sequencing (NGS) technology is spreading from universities to commercial labs.
The technologies have been added to the company’s ISO17025 accredited service portfolio following an audit in April 2014.
ISO17025 sets international standards for the competence of testing and calibration laboratories and covers mass spectrometry-based DNA analysis and molecular testing methods, for example Sanger sequencing, quantitative Real-Time PCR and fragment length polymorphisms analysis.
Next-generation sequencing uses large-scale, high-throughput platforms to sequence DNA and RNA more quickly and cheaply than previous technologies. Eurofins uses Roche’s 454 platform, the Roche Genome Sequencer FLX, and Illumina’s HiSeq 2000, and recent additions Illumina 2500 and MiSeq which it says provide customers with a “high accuracy rate and shorter turnaround times.
Carola Grimminger, Eurofins spokeswoman, told Outsourcing-Pharma.com customer demand drove the company to expand its range of services. “NGS is moving from academic grade services to applied services in food and healthcare where regulations are much more important.”
Pharmaceutical clients ask for next generation sequencing “from early development until clinical trials along the value chain of drug development where the customer has to prove the quality management of the outsourcing partner,” she said.
Gene services
Eurofins Genomics provides analytical services under the ISO17025 quality standard for the pharmaceutical industry, as well as veterinary medicine, food, feed and commodity testing. This includes medical laboratory testing for clinical studies and genetic diagnostics. As well as next generation sequencing, it provides genotyping, gene expression, custom DNA sequencing, oligonucleotides, siRNA and gene synthesis.
Eurofins Scientific Group, the parent of Eurofins Genomics, has labs in 37 countries and 15,000 employees. It has said it plans to double its 2012 size and reach €2bn ($2.7bn) in revenues by 2017.